Kendrapada villagers protest drinking water shortage

Kendrapada: Residents of several villages in Kendrapada’s Rajkanika block on Friday sat on an indefinite dharna demanding drinking water as they placed empty buckets and pots in front of the panchayat office.“We have been facing a severe water crisis for the last three months since four tubewells in our village are defunct. The sole working tubewell is located in a nearby village and women are forced to trek a kilometer in this heat and wait for hours in long queues to fetch a pot of water,” Basanti Das of Abdulpur village said.When contacted, block development officer Kailash Chandra Mahalik said, “To mitigate drinking water scarcity, the officials of rural water supply and sanitation department have started repair work of many defunct tubewells. Salinity is a major problem in many seaside villages for which many people get salty water from the tubewells. We will soon provide drinking water through tankers to the villagers.”